Prophet

With two games pending from postponements, the Prophet put up a .500week, going 2-2 on his high school picks.The rage of a sage tooktwo out of three in lacrosse picks, but missed the "Baseball Game ofthe Week."Prophet Pat thought for sure that highly regarded Old Mill would whip Arundel in 4A Region IV baseball, since Old Mill was at home.Forget that. Coach Bernie Walter's Wildcats out-slugged the PatriotsMonday afternoon to win, 11-8. The Prophet had picked Old Mill by two runs.The victory was the unbeaten Wildcats' seventh in a row, as Old Mill slipped to 4-2.The Prophet did say, "This game will bea beauty," and it was, but he should have listened to Coach Walter, who had forewarned him, "They (the Patriots)

In his article about Christian environmentalism ("Confluence of Good Friday, Earth Day a reminder of our duty to protect God's creation," May 3), Bishop John R. Schol, alluding to "Green Dragon" views of environmentalism as "actively anti-Christian," claims that some voices are "distorting the intentions and efforts of environmentally-minded Christians. " As founder of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation — which produced a DVD series, "Resisting the Green Dragon" and works with many of the top evangelical leaders and ministries in America — I can tell you that an overwhelming number of us are glad to see Christians becoming increasingly involved in environmental stewardship.

Yes, sports fans, Prophet Pat is back!Summer is over, and pigskins are in the air, and that means you get your weekly dose of the "rage of a sage."Lest you forgot, he was 73-28 for a percentage of .723 in high school football last season.Overall for the school year, the Prophet was 171-80, a percentage of .684.As usual, opening week is a big one with 14 games involving 15 county teams on tap. So, let's don'twaste any time and see what came up on the Prophet's crystal ball.*Randallstown (12-0 last year)

The political commentators, top Democrats and their leading presidential contender couldn't say enough about President Bush's reference to Nazi appeasers during his speech last week to Israel's parliament. It was a perceived slap at Sen. Barack Obama's interest in talking to Iran and Syria - the evildoers the administration loves to hate - but it struck a chord on Israel's 60th anniversary because many of its citizens view Iran as their potential annihilator. What got less attention was Mr. Bush's single reference to the Palestinians in his speech, and it resonated in a way the president's speechwriters probably never intended.

In the first chapter of his great study of the poet William Blake, the critic Northrop Frye notes that there is a distinction between prophecy and prediction. Prediction, Frye says, involves foretelling the future. Prophecy, by contrast, is the revelation of eternal truths. Blake was a prophet, and it was his lot to stoically endure the fate of one little honored in his native land. He was a difficult personality, eccentric in his views compared with the conforming multitudes around him, one of those quirky, isolated, largely self-taught geniuses whom the vast majority of his countrymen managed to completely ignore during his lifetime, despite the fact that he was among the greatest English poets.

Prophet Pat closed out the 1991-1992 winter season with a half-courtswish. His final 5-1 slate prognosticating high school hoops was theequivalent of a three-point bomb from NBA range.Only a pick madefrom his heart and not his uncanny wisdom cost him a perfect card the last week of the season.The 5-1 finish leaves the Prophet at a more-than-respectable .655percentage (135-71) going into the spring sports season.Reviewing the Prophet's final card of the winter season, the rage of a sage missed only on the Old Mill boys first-ever appearance in the state final four for Class 4A schools at Cole Field House.

Everybody is entitled to a bad outing. Just ask my man, Jim Palmer. The Hall of Famer had one Monday and retired again.So, when the Prophet has one, give him a break. The rage of a sage had a brutal time of it in last week's boys and girls state basketball playoffs, but he's not ready to quit.No, the Prophet is a long way from retiring. In fact, some of hisclose friends have called him "Severna Park's oldest teen-ager."The Prophet was a lousy 2-4 last week, and the Old Mill girls especially made him look bad. Old Mill, who the Prophet said was "a year away" with its underclass-dominated team, won it all.Old Mill was tabbed to lose its Class 4A semifinal to Largo of Prince George's County by two points, but instead the Patriots buried their foe by a lopsided 68-40.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani protests against the Danish cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad spilled into violent attacks on American and European businesses yesterday. Thousands marched in the streets of Lahore, Pakistan's cultural capital, and started a riot when a security guard shot protesters who were threatening a bank. The mob burned or stoned outlets of KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut, a Holiday Inn and an office of Telenor, a Norwegian mobile phone company. TV footage also showed more random destruction, as protesters burned the Punjab province legislative building, parked cars and motorcycles, and a fire truck.

So what did you expect, a great week from the Prophet in his initial attempt of the high school football season?The Rage of a Sage just doesn't do well on his picks the first week, and last week he was 6-7 overall. The slate was the Prophet's first losing football week since 1988.Not to make excuses, but the Prophet's state-of-the-art computerized crystal ball was overloaded.You sports fans may not know it, but the Prophet put in some OT last week handicapping the elections.Two of the three misses on Saturday were near hits as Severn's rally fell short in a 13-6 loss to Model School of D.C., and St. Mary's came through in a second OT to nip John Carroll of Harford County, 23-22.

After a very good 6-2 week picking high school contests, I've got some bad news, sports fans. The Prophet is about to bring down the curtain on another year, and that is always a tough pill for a lot of you to swallow.Your devoted servant, the rage of a sage, has only two picks left, and then it's outta here for another year. Last week's playoff picks left the Prophet at 169-92 overall (.648).The only misses came in baseball and softball first-round playoff games, but the right teams (the ones the sage picked)

The woman initially didn't want to believe her teenage son's allegations that the pastor she considered a father figure had molested him. "I asked him over and over, `Are you sure?'" she told a Baltimore County judge yesterday, "hoping he would say something that would let me escape this." Yesterday, as Gerald Fitroy Griffith pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse, the woman talked of the pain that came with betrayal. Still, some members of the Redemption Christian Fellowship Church in Woodlawn sat behind Griffith during his court hearing -- and waved to him. Circuit Judge Robert N. Dugan said there could no longer be any doubt about Griffith's guilt.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Across the Islamic world yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI's remarks this week on Islam unleashed a torrent of rage that many fear could burst into violent protests like those that followed the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad last year. Pakistan's Parliament unanimously urged the pope to withdraw his remarks, made Tuesday in Germany, and the Pakistani government summoned the Vatican's envoy for a formal protest. Government or Muslim religious officials from India to Morocco, in addition to leaders of Europe's Muslim minorities, echoed the condemnations.

Religion was supposed to fade away as globalization and freedom spread. Instead, it's booming around the world, often deciding who gets elected. And the divine intervention is just beginning. Democracy is giving people a voice, and more and more, they want to talk about God. After Hamas won a decisive victory in January's Palestinian elections, one of its supporters replaced the national flag that flew over parliament with its emerald-green banner heralding, "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is His Prophet."

The ancient Greeks probably had no idea when they scheduled the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C. that the simple footrace held in honor of Zeus would evolve into the lavishly produced, heavily hyped, ratings-conscious, drama-laden, up-close-and-personal international extravaganza it has become. Or so you would think. Recent archaeological research, however - specifically, the discovery of an ancient Greek parchment, found at the bottom of an ancient Greek trash can buried in a mound of volcanic ash outside a souvlaki drive-through - shows that, even nearly 3,000 years ago, the founders of the Olympics did have some inkling of what was ahead.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani protests against the Danish cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad spilled into violent attacks on American and European businesses yesterday. Thousands marched in the streets of Lahore, Pakistan's cultural capital, and started a riot when a security guard shot protesters who were threatening a bank. The mob burned or stoned outlets of KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut, a Holiday Inn and an office of Telenor, a Norwegian mobile phone company. TV footage also showed more random destruction, as protesters burned the Punjab province legislative building, parked cars and motorcycles, and a fire truck.

WASHINGTON -- All of us are quick to deplore the recent violence in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Asia that occurred in response to published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. These cartoons were subsequently reprinted in French, Spanish and German newspapers, allegedly in defense of free speech. However, if Americans are serious about improving their relationship with Arab countries and the Muslim community, we should be quick to condemn the deliberately irresponsible, outrageous and hateful journalistic lampooning of the Muslim world's prophet.

After a more than respectable high school football season in which he went 74-30 for a percentage of .711, your favorite prognosticator is back.That's right, sports fans, Prophet Pat is back with his weekly picks on high school hoops with a -- of wrestling and indoor track.The Prophet is the only local prognosticator who works year-round. The other local guys quit after football, while your rage of a sagenever seems to get enough.The Prophet takes a couple of weeks off following the conclusion of the football season and returns very refreshed for the winter season.

It wasn't a great opening week for Prophet Pat in high school hoops. In fact, it wasrather lousy.The rage of a sage was 2-3 with one game postponed,running his overall season total to 76-33, a percentage of .697.Only the Northeast and St. Mary's girls came through for the Prophet while three boys teams -- South River, Glen Burnie and Arundel -- didnot.Northeast, a four-point favorite by the Prophet, ripped GlenBurnie, 55-27, while St. Mary's buried Chesapeake, 56-29, as predicted. The Prophet told you it would be St. Mary's by at least 10 points.

BERLIN -- Flags burned and protesters chanted from Europe to South Asia as outrage over satirical cartoons of the prophet Muhammad spread yesterday from the Pakistani parliament to the streets of Gaza to a meeting between Danish leaders and Muslim diplomats. The cartoons reprinted this week in European newspapers lampoon Muhammad, with one showing him as a jihad warrior wearing a turban shaped like a bomb. The caricatures have been condemned by imams as an attack on Islam and have underscored the widening suspicions between Europeans and millions of Muslim immigrants.

PARIS -- French and German newspapers republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad yesterday in what they called a defense of freedom of expression, sparking fresh anger among Muslims. The drawings have divided opinion within Europe and the Middle East since a Danish newspaper first printed them in September. Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet to prevent idolatry. The cartoons include an image of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb and another portraying him holding a sword.